What's Your Nature?

Become a Nature Up North explorer to share your encounters with wild things and wild places in New York's North Country. Post your wildlife sightings, landscape shots, photos from your outings, and even your organization's events!

I found Invasive Phragmites by the artificial pond on St. Lawrence University's campus. Invasive Phragmites is a tall terrestrial plant that usually grows in clusters near marshes. It can be identified from native phragmites by its height, and the color of its stem base. This invasive phragmites was found during the spring and is a tan color with a seed/flowering head. Being that it is spring, most of the phragmites plants were knocked over and dead with the exception of these few phragmites stems.

Recent days have seen the return of many species of migrant birds that either breed here in the North Country or move through on migration to farther reaches north. The Phoebe and Swamp Sparrow seen here are among the breeders. And what says spring more than a porcupine completely covered with fresh pollen?!